Unexpected Mentors
by BlueBoxForever
Summary: If Bucky thought the world didn't have any more surprises for him he was wrong. Read as he befriends a teenage psychic hiding from the world in the Canadian Rockies, argues with her mischievous mentor and finds out he was once a mentor himself. Post CA:WS, NOT Bucky x OC, Other Avengers characters will make an appearance.


**AN: This replaces my previous story (which could barely be called a story) of The Power of a Friend. Much thanks to Britt30 who got me to write this and helped with editing.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel characters I just like to imagine.**

Navigating the Canadian Rockies by yourself with no map to speak of is generally a stupid thing to do. At least it is if you care about where you're going. Luckily for him James Buchanan (Bucky) Barnes did not care in the slightest where he was, as long as Hydra wasn't there as well. That frame of mind was the reason he was in the middle of nowhere with only some beef jerky and dried fruit for food.

Bucky was on high alert. Someone had been following him for at least 3 miles. It was hard to tell exactly how long they had been following him because he would hear something and then it would disappear for several minutes before he could get a good look at what or whoever it was. He had just entered an area of forest where the underbrush had thinned slightly when he heard something skittering along a tree trunk. He turned quickly to see what it was. The only thing he saw that could have made the noise was two squirrels chasing each other up the trunk of some type of pine tree. He relaxed ever so slightly at the absence of another person.

He faced the direction he had previously been walking, only to find his path blocked. If he had been the type to stumble backwards he would have. Hanging upside down by her knees from a sturdy branch ten feet off the ground was a girl with auburn hair that was in an elaborate crown of braids. She had grey blue eyes that somehow held knowledge that was far beyond her years. She appeared to be no more than twenty. Bucky could tell that even by the strange fashions of this century, this girl was dressed peculiarly. As limited as his knowledge of this sort of thing was he was sure it wasn't normal for anyone to wear a grey green mottled cloak.

Bucky glared suspiciously at her. She tilted her head in puzzlement before asking, "Are you a hobo?"

"No." He stated hoarsely. It was the first time he'd spoken in at least two weeks. He maneuvered around the odd, but in his professional opinion not dangerous, girl, intent on continuing on his meandering way. He sighed internally as he heard her drop to the forest floor and skipped ahead of him. She started walking backwards so she was facing him. Bucky was mildly impressed she hadn't tripped on something. She was grinning at him happily.

"I was just kidding about you being a hobo, all though frankly you do smell like one." Bucky glared at her again ignoring the comment. He was perturbed that his death glare seemed to have no effect on this overly chipper young woman. "I know who you are, sort of, if you could call it a name. You're The Winter Soldier."

Bucky stiffened, his flesh hand dropped to his waist to grasp the handle of one of his many knives.

"Wow. I'm honestly a little surprised you didn't try to shoot me or something, given your reputation." The girl seemed genuinely impressed.

Bucky blinked once before replying gruffly, "I'm trying to move past that response."

"Good for you," she acknowledged sincerely.

"How do you know who I am?" Bucky huffed as he crossed his arms and glared at her some more.

"Don't you have any other responses but glaring at me?" Bucky kept glaring. "Sheesh, Mr. Grumpy. I knew because I'm psychic." Bucky raised one skeptical eyebrow.

"Psychic? That's what you're going with?

"It's the truth, you'll see." Bucky grunted and changed direction so he was walking away from the clearly delusional girl. "You'll see!" she shouted after him. "Don't say I didn't warn you when you get attacked by a grizzly in a few hours!"

Line Break

Four hours later, an extremely disgruntled Winter Soldier had two less bullets than he started the day with. He was now following the girl's very obvious tracks intent on demanding how on earth she knew that he would unknowingly get in between an angry male grizzly and his dinner. The girl's small fire was so easy to find in the twilight it was laughable.

"I was hoping you'd show up soon. I was going to start eating without you."

"How," he demanded, looking sharply to the left where the girl was calmly walking alongside him, "do you keep sneaking up on me?"

"Practice. One of my hobbies is sneaking up on someone who knows every trick in the book; come to think of it he probably invented a few of them himself." She giggled briefly at her own private joke. "Let's eat, I'm hungry. That bear attacked you over an hour ago. I thought you'd get here sooner." She pouted. "Why did it take you so long to get here anyways?" Her demeanor was no longer pouting.

"Why don't you tell me, since you're the supposedly psychic one?" Bucky retaliated as he grudgingly took the bowl of stew the girl handed him. He did not however eat its contents. She saw his hesitancy and rolled her eyes.. She leaned over and snitched a piece of meat from his bowl popping it into her mouth. After she had swallowed, she questioned,

"There. Satisfied it's not poisoned or drugged?"

"No."

"Fine, don't eat. Even though this is the first real food you've had since you started wandering around my mountain." She shrugged her indifference as she dug into her own bowl with gusto.

"I'm pretty sure you don't own this mountain"

"Not officially, no, but I know this mountain better than anyone else, I think I have the right to call it mine." She defended her claim with an air of having done it many times before.

"Whatever. That's not important what's important is how you knew I was going to be attacked by a grizzly. If I wasn't the Winter Soldier I would be dead."

"First things first. This afternoon I knew you were The Winter Soldier because I had a vision of this conversation happening last night. You just said who you are. And as for the grizzly, this morning I saw a man with a metal arm walking away from a grizzly's corpse. She gestured to his prosthetic. "You don't meet many people with metal arms up here, especially two in one day so I knew the guy walking away had to be you as well."

"Even If I did believe you, which I don't by the way, how could you know when these things you see happen?"

The girl pondered her choice of words for a moment before replying "I guess it's like there's a time stamp on each of them. I know the date, time and location of every vision."

Bucky pressed a hand to his face in frustration. "Just when I thought the twenty-first century couldn't get any weirder."

"Ten bucks says you're wrong, it's going to get a lot weirder"

She stood up from her portion of the fallen tree they were both perched on. "Do you want more stew?"

"I haven't eaten any of the first bowl you gave me."

"You sure about that?"

"Yes I'm sure I would have noticed if-"

Bucky looked down genuinely surprised to see that he had apparently eaten the stew he'd been given. The young woman just smirked at him.

"Told ya you needed real food." She smiled and took the empty bowl from him. She returned it full to the brim with more stew. With his mind actually focused on the food this time he was even more shocked he hadn't realized he'd eaten the first bowl. The stew was the most delicious thing he'd ever tasted. Even if he hadn't been living off of jerky and dried fruit for five days. He ate three more bowls before his stomach was satisfied.

After Bucky had finished eating he realized he'd been forgetting something important. "What's your name?"

"Arianna. You can call me Ari or Anna or make the effort to say my full name. For some reason most people have trouble saying the whole thing, I think they're of the opinion it's too old fashioned" She shrugged. "What's your name? Because The Winter Soldier isn't much of a proper name."

Bucky had to think about that for a second. _What is my name now? It's not Bucky anymore. I don't deserve that name. At least not yet. James? No I hate that name… _"You can call me Barnes."

"Well Mr. Barnes, it is a pleasure to meet you" She held out her hand. Bucky hesitated for a second before shaking it.

"The pleasure's all mine, Miss Arianna."

Arianna peered around their little camp site. The light was almost completely gone now. She muttered to herself for a bit. Bucky thought he saw her eyes turn green in the firelight. She looked to the sky dismally. "I wish I'd known there wouldn't be enough light to make it home". She sighed. "Sleeping outside it is then. If that arm doesn't do well in water you're going to want to cover it. It's going to rain tonight."

"There isn't a cloud in the sky" Bucky objected

She pointed at herself. "Psychic remember?" She continued gloomily "Trust me it's going to rain."

**Reviews and constructive criticism are always appreciated.**


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